The Stopover
by Snoot37
Summary: SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME. This story assumes Steve would have wielded the stones instead of Tony, and his subsequent near-death experiences. Fiction written in anticipation of Captain America's death prior to the movie release, with some updating to account for the movie.


**Author's Note:**

**In anticipation of everyone saying that Captain America would die in "Endgame," I began writing this some time ago. For me, writing fanfiction has always been about an exercise in catharsis, "fixing" what I didn't like about my various fandoms into a story in my own head that I could be at peace with following a major disappointment in my entertainment. After seeing "Endgame," I realized that I would need to begin a flurry of fanfiction writing to offset how terribly robbed I feel at how it all turned out, although I enjoyed the movie up until about the last 30 minutes of it. I have no shortage of Iron Man fiction that is now irrelevant, though I suspect I have one last Iron Man fanfiction in me somewhere that might fix Tony's outcome in "Endgame." I thought this fanfic was now useless, until I realized that it really isn't. If we imagine that Steve took on Tony's role and activated the gauntlet and subsequently died for it, then this fiction is for you. It goes without saying, WARNING: SPOLIERS FOR "ENDGAME." And keep an eye out for the various fanfics I will need to write to fix Steve's "Endgame" ending as well. I mean seriously, what the hell? Apologies for any similarity to Harry Potter's similar scene.**

**Enjoy.**

_The Stopover_

Steve was floating. Drifting. Almost like being in freefall without a parachute, which he had done a few times, or like drifting on the sea on a raft. There was no sense of up or down, and nothing around him took on any sort of distinctive shape. He also couldn't register any type of sensory feedback, in that he suspected he was still wearing clothes, but could not feel them on his body in, nor could he hear, smell, or sense anything else around him. He supposed he should be grateful for that, for he expected to feel pain or some other type of unpleasant physical sensation. After all, one always suspected that death would hurt tremendously, that the sensation of your body ceasing to live couldn't be anything other than extremely painful. But, he realized, he wasn't feeling anything because he no longer had a body. It was gone. But he still had some kind of sense of self, which he couldn't really define. From the moment he had grabbed the Stones and reversed Thanos' damage, sparing Tony from leaving his wife a widow and his daughter an orphan, Steve had known that this would truly be the end. He didn't know how long he drifted, but just as suddenly, he wasn't drifting anymore, and instead was standing in what appeared to be some type of long dark hallway with a light at the end of it, framing around what appeared to be a set of old-fashioned double doors. Since he had awakened in the 21st-century, he had spent a significant amount of time watching various documentary channels attempting to catch up with the world, and some of those had involved people claiming to have survived death and had near death experiences, and almost universally they spoke of a long hallway or tunnel with a light on the end of it. He supposed this was his tunnel. He knew he was supposed to travel to the end of it towards the light, and so he moved purposely towards the doors glowing with an ethereal glow, but could not register legs moving or feet hitting the ground. He figured he just sort of floated in that direction, but when he came to the doors, he felt himself reach out for them and apparently hands grabbed the handles, because for the first time he felt the sensation of the door handles beneath his fingers.

He pushed open the doors and walked inside. Almost immediately, he felt the sensation of his physical senses activating or at least being replicated, for he could hear music, old-time big band music like Glenn Miller's "In the mood" playing, and he could see around him lights of what appeared to be a dance hall, with voices happily chattering, even smell what seem to be the smell of a hardwood floor and amazingly, cookies wafting over from a table in the corner. He looked around at the various gyrating couples swirling around in time to the music, and it seemed as if he should know all of them, but couldn't quite place their faces or names. He looked down at himself and realized he had some sort of physical form again, as he seemed to be wearing his World War II dress uniform. With a jolt, he realized this was very similar to the scene that he saw in his mind when Wanda had triggered hallucinations in all of the Avengers before she realized what she was doing. Then, he heard a familiar feminine voice with a slight British accent come over the blast of music.

"You're late."

He turned around fast and there she was, standing in the same red dress he had seen her wear in the club the night he had formed the Howling Commandos. The dress seemed to shimmer, and her skin, which wasn't really skin, gave off an ethereal glow. Her lips, red as an apple, quirked up and smiled, and her cheeks raised slightly to frame her sharp brown eyes, and her auburn hair fell gently around her shoulders in soft curls, without a strand out of place. Peggy Carter looked every bit the vision of beauty she had been during the war, but something about her poise indicated that what stood before him was not the Peggy of the past, but the one who had lived her full 95 years of life and had gained the wisdom that had come with that amount of time on earth.

Not knowing what to say, he simply said her name, "Peggy."

With a smile, she reached her arms out for him, and he moved into them, wrapping his own around her. He held her for a long time, even as the music transitioned to a slower dance, and the gyrating couples behind him slowed down into a slow dance and they became one couple amongst many.

"I guess we finally got that dance," he said somewhat sadly.

He felt her chuckle rather than heard her, but she said, "Better late than never."

Gently she pushed away from him and stood a step back to look at him. She studied him for a minute.

"I have to admit, given the choices you decided to make this time around, we really didn't know when we would be seeing you back here. It could have been at any moment really, although time doesn't exactly move the way we think it does, so there is no real before or after this moment. But it seems soon for you to be back."

Steve looked at her confused. He had never heard her talk that way before. "What do you mean?" he asked.

She stretched out her arm and gestured to everyone in the room who had stopped dancing, and it seemed that the music had stopped playing as well. He looked around and noticed for the first time that he recognized several people in the room. There in the corner where the Commandos, with Frenchy and Morita and crazy Dum Dum Dugan, grinning at him like idiots and waving. Steve didn't recognize the women standing next to his friends, but somehow he suddenly understood that these had been their wives and girlfriends in their lives at the moment they had died. Despite this fact, everyone in that corner looked quite happy and content, and even glad to see him. In another corner, with a start, he suddenly recognized his parents, not worn down by life as he had later known them, but young and vibrant, as when they had first married. There was his mother, radiant and beautiful, without the careworn lines across her face brought on by trying to raise her son on her nurse's salary during the Great Depression, and his father beside her, looking very much like Steve himself, wearing his soldier's uniform, which he had been wearing when he had died in World War I. Steve locked eyes with the man who had been his father and he could see the pride and admiration in the other man's face, something he had longed to see you as a child, but have never had the chance due to his father dying when he was just a baby. All his life, Steve had only recognized his father from the three pictures his mother had.

Against a wall, he saw Howard Stark standing with a woman Steve recognized from photos at Tony's house as Maria Stark. Howard looked older than he had when Steve had known him, but younger than when he died, and with his arm affectionately around Maria, Steve could see how their son Tony definitely favored Maria the most, but with hints of Howard around his eyes. There was a Doctor Erskine and Colonel Chester Phillips against another wall. And he thought he recognized Wanda's twin brother Pietro amongst the faces that were a little less clear when he tried to focus on them. Then, to his shock and sadness, he saw Natasha standing there, her arms crossed across her waist, smiling at him. He felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow crush down upon him as he realized that she could only be here because she was truly gone, and permanently. He looked around and did not see Bucky, Wanda, or any of the others who had disappeared at the snap of Thanos' gauntlet. That meant that they had truly succeeded and the others had been resurrected, for he supposed Bucky would be standing with the Commandos if he had truly died. But if Natasha was standing there, then it meant that her sacrifice for the Soul Stone must be permanent. Steve felt himself wanting to cry, but then an overwhelming sense of peace washed over him. She smiled and shook her head and stepped back next to Pietro. In that instant, he knew that she was where she needed to be.

He glanced back at Peggy who smiled again and swept her arm against the last wall, and Steve followed where she pointed, with a start recognizing several people who must be the Carter family. He could see what had to be Peggy's brother Michael standing against a wall with a smile, resembling his sister quite strongly, and standing next to a young man who Steve recognized must be Sharon's father Harrison, who had died in the early 1990s in the Desert Storm operation. But it was the young man standing next to Harrison, serious though kindly, that Steve suddenly recognized as Daniel Sousa. He locked eyes with the man, suddenly remembering that this had been Peggy's husband, whom she married in the 1950s after meeting him in the SSR, which would later become SHIELD. He remembered Sharon telling him that initially the two had butted heads, even working against each other when the SSR agents had refused to accept a female agent as an equal. But Daniel had been one of the first to treat Peggy as a true colleague, not just someone there to make the coffee. Daniel had been one of the soldiers that Steve had rescued when he had gone after Bucky, which had also included the Howling Commandos. The man had been severely injured in the escape, a bullet shattering his leg beneath the knee, requiring him to ride on the back of the tank they had stolen as the escaped American soldiers had marched hundreds of miles to the nearest Allied base. Steve had dropped back behind only once to address the soldier sitting with a weapon on the back of the tank, keeping an eye on their flank to make sure that nobody came up behind to ambush them. He could see the man had been in terrible pain, white with the effort of not showing how badly hurt he was, and suggesting that the soldier take a rest and let someone else take watch. The man had simply thanked him quietly and refused, going back to his watch and ignoring the slow destruction of his leg.

Sharon had told him that her uncle's leg ended up being amputated above-the-knee and he walked with a prosthetic for the rest of his life, and that he had later suffered medical issues as he grew older that had culminated in a stroke when Sharon was 15, right about the time Peggy started showing signs of Alzheimer's. It had been a hard time for the Carter family. It was this man, Daniel, who had fathered Peggy's two children, was grandfather to her grandchildren, and who had been there for her when Steve had not been able to. The man had died long before Steve had awoken from the ice, but he always wondered how he would feel if they had met in person. Now, as he stared at the other man in this strange place of departed souls, he felt nothing but gratitude, thankful that someone had been there for Peggy, and that she had not lived the rest of her 95 years alone pining for him and for what might have been. Because of this man, the holidays and long nights for Peggy in the years that followed his crash of the Valkyrie bomber were not spent alone, in silence, but instead had involved a house full of children and grandchildren and a man who she could talk to, who she could rely on, who was there for her. Steve felt an odd sense of relief, and he smiled at Daniel who quietly smiled back and nodded once, before slightly retreating into the shadows. Before turning back to Peggy, Steve's eyes locked with Harrison Carter, Sharon's father. He had died when Sharon was only seven, and Steve had never had the chance to meet him, but to his surprise, he saw in the other man's eyes a strange mixture of approval and rebuke, as if he both approved and disapproved of Steve in some way. He nodded at the man who nodded back, but Harrison's eyes were pointed and questioning as he too retreated into the shadows.

He turned back to Peggy. "What is this place?"

"It's a stopping point," she replied. "A place where we go to review our lives, wait for those we love, and if necessary, move on. It appears to each person differently. You see it as this dance hall. I'm not sure I wat to know what Dugan sees it as."

"The place of judgment?" he asked.

Her bell-like laughter rang in his ears and echoed in the now silent hall, as Steve once again looked around at all the souls of people he had known now watching him, though he was oddly not offended by their stares.

"It's not quite like that," she replied, "regardless of what we all learned in Sunday school. It's not a judgment, exactly, it's a review. What did we learn? Who did we help? Who did we love? And how did we come up short? Above all, are we finish playing the game?"

"What game?"

"Life," she said simply. "It's really like those video games that the kids play now."

"Do you know about video games?" he asked in surprise.

"Oh yes," she said. "My grandsons kept trying to teach me that Nintendo thing. I'm afraid I really wasn't up to it at the time that they showed me."

"So you know everything that's happened up to the point that you….died?" he asked.

"I know everything I'm supposed to know, as do you," she replied. "You just need to ask the question."

"Peggy, I'm sorry, but this isn't making any sense," he shook his head confused. "Is this heaven or not?"

She sighed. "I think that you are still stuck in your latest human form. You're still approaching all this from what that lifetime learned of the afterlife. It's not quite like that. That's odd, really, because by the time you make it here, you shouldn't have these questions. It should be clear to you. I wonder if somehow there is still a hold on your soul that was the life that was Steve Rogers."

"There you go again," he said, "acting like I've had more than one life. All I remember is Steve Rogers. The way I was brought up in church said we only have one life. Are you saying we have more than one?"

"Oh yes," she said. "You don't expect us to get it right the first and only try do you?"

"Well," he said, "that's what we were supposed to do."

"That's what some are taught," she said. She swept her arm again around the entire room. "What actually happens is each soul belongs to a group, also a group of related souls who recognize each other on sight during our lifetimes. These are the ones we just meet but could swear we've known forever. We just click with them. We live many lives, have many experiences, and we are many things to each other throughout these lives. For instance, you and I. In past lives, we have had many kinds of relationships. We have been married, we have been parent and child, we have been siblings, we have even been enemies. The whole point of each life that we have ever lived is to attain new understanding and have new experiences. Everyone you see here has, at some time, had a relationship with you. There are others who belong to our group who are not here, because they still live in their current forms, or have chosen not to incarnate this time. All the people you know who you left behind, they're part of the same soul group. And at different times throughout our existence, they too have been different things to you. Some have been your children, some your parents, some you have even fought against. Some have had more interactions with you than others. In some lifetimes, there are some from this group whom you never meet because they do not take part in that particular life experience that you have chosen. Just as in the other lives of everyone in this hall, sometimes you have been in those lives, sometimes you have not. The only thing that really matters is that the life you have just lived has accomplished all that it is meant to do. You do that with the help of others in your soul group."

Steve felt disoriented, a strange thing given his current state of being and location. "I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I've lived more than once and it one point you were my enemy," he said. "I just can't fathom that."

She laughed, and then looked at him seriously. "That's what makes me think that perhaps you're not completely done with the game of being Steve Rogers. You're not accessing all this information that you should have known as soon as you came through those doors. You should have known this without me explaining. And you're still approaching existence as if you were that man. Perhaps you are not done."

"I destroyed the stones," he said. "I did it so that Tony would not have to die and leave his family behind. I'm dead. I'm here aren't I?" Steve glanced at Howard who was looking at him intently, and gave him a slight nod.

Peggy shrugged. "That doesn't necessarily mean you're done. Like I said, this is a place of review. This is where you think about the life you have lived as Steve Rogers, and ask yourself if you were truly done. I call it a game, because that's really what it is. You make choices, you go down certain roads, you make more choices and go down all those roads. The choices you make determine how that life turns out, not unlike playing a character in the game. But only you can decide if you were done playing."

"Is that why I didn't come here after the crash?" he asked. "I don't remember anything like this after the plane hit the ice."

"Well you weren't dead," she said.

"And I'm not dead now?" he asked.

"Oh no, you are," she said. She pointed up on the stage where the curtains parted to reveal a movie screen. It came to life, although Steve could not see a projector, and suddenly he was looking at his dead body lying on the ground, surrounded by his grieving friends. They were standing there, looking at him in shock. He watched as they talked about what he had done, watched as they lifted him up and carried him to the Avengers facility medical bay and laid him out where the machines confirmed that he was truly dead. Then, he felt another wave of sadness wash over him as he saw Sharon come into the room, stand looking at his dead body dumbstruck, and then pull up a chair, sit next to him, take his hand in hers and drop her head. She didn't make a sound, but her shoulders shook with silent sobs. Quietly, everyone left to give her a moment alone with him.

"Sharon," he whispered. He glanced over at Harrison Carter, and now understood the man's reproachful gaze. He felt a heaviness of sorrow as he saw the only other woman he had ever loved, the niece of the first, so strong and capable and reliable, quietly crying over his dead form. With a jolt, he realized he had done to her essentially what he had done to her aunt. Given his life in the line of duty to save the life of others, even if it meant leaving her behind and facing a lifetime without him.

He looked over at Peggy to see if she too was reproachful, but instead her kind eyes were sad as she watched her niece.

"She was always such a strong girl," she said softly. "I was so proud of her. Though she looks nothing like me, she was more like me than any of my children or grandchildren. But so much her own person too. I knew she would take care of you. Love you as I did."

"And now I leave her behind like I left you," Steve said sorrowfully.

Peggy shrugged again, and looked at him. "Only if you think your time as Steve Rogers is truly at an end."

"You mean I can go back?" he asked in surprise.

"You wouldn't be the first," she said. "Unless you haven't noticed, you have remarkable healing abilities in your Steve Rogers body, thanks to the serum. You are gravely wounded, and your body systems have stopped, but if you decide you want to continue the life, they will restart, for the body obeys the will of the soul."

"Then why don't more people come back from the dead?" he asked. "Even with or without the serum, if someone decides their life isn't finished, couldn't they come back?"

"Some have," agreed Peggy, "and without the serum. But most people, by the time they get here, have decided that they are done playing that particular game, and wait to catch the train to the final destination, or they decide to go back and have another round in another body as another person."

"Catch the train?" Steve asked.

"It's just an expression," said Peggy. "One that you will understand, since you are still stuck in the life of Steve Rogers. Some wait around here for others in the soul group to come back, others move on to the next level, only coming back when they feel they are ready to try again. It's quite complicated, and not really relevant right now. But you have a choice. You could 'catch the train' with us and move on, or you could go back and live out your life as Steve Rogers, dying some other time and coming back here to decide that you're finally done."

Steve looked up at Sharon, slowly starting to gain a hold of herself, as she stood up and regarded his lifeless form one more time. He ached at the thought that she would experience the same hurt that her aunt experienced, but would she find someone to love her as Peggy had? To fill the void he would leave behind? Or would she drift through her life, uncertain of where she belonged? With SHIELD gone and her dismissal from the CIA, she would never work again in her chosen field. With him gone, she had lost the love of her life. She was directionless following the final battle for humanity."

"What will she do?" he asked, pointing at the screen.

"Oh don't you worry about Sharon," Peggy said with a smile. "She isn't done yet. She's lived many lifetimes, and she will live many more. Some of them have been with you, some have been with others. She is on her own journey, and whether or not you remain a part of that journey is not based on the choices you make here."

He looked back at Peggy.

"Your decision to stay or return should not be based on her or me," Peggy said simply. "I've lived my life as Peggy Carter, a long and full one, and was privileged to have you in it, but you were not the sum total of my life. Technically speaking, this time around, you are a relatively short part of it. We knew each other only two years, shared only one kiss, and then went our separate ways. My role in this lifetime was not as your partner, as it has been in the past, and may be again in the future, but instead was to prepare you for someone who would truly be your partner in your life as Steve Rogers."

"Sharon?" he asked.

Peggy nodded. "I prepared you, and to a certain extent I prepared her, with my stories of you, and unquestioning loyalty to you. She has been your partner in the past as well, and will be again in the future, and upon deciding to live these lives, it wasn't an easy choice for you to be born a full half century before her, and then meet her much later on. Your life as Steve Rogers was an odd one, all things considered. It didn't follow the normal course of human life. But this is why you should decide for yourself. It is not a choice between her and me. You will always see both of us again when your time on earth is finished."

She againt swept her arms around again as the souls began making their way to another door. "All of us, we are all here waiting for you, as we are waiting for her, Tony, Clint, and all those you have left behind. Bucky will be here soon, and when he does he will stay. But whether you come with us now and catch the train, or return to your life as Steve Rogers, is entirely up to this one question: are you finished playing the game? Have you done everything you intended to do as Steve Rogers? If the answer to that is yes, then you come with us and board the train. If it is not? You return back to your battered body and spend several weeks sipping smoothies through a straw, and then living the rest of your life. However you want it."

Steve looked back at the screen as it began to dim, the last image of Sharon slowly wiping her eyes and drawing herself up, steeling herself for what she knew she must do, walk out of the room and continue her life without him. He looked back at Peggy, still smiling at him, and then back at the screen as it slowly went dark, fading on Sharon's face as the curtains drew back down. He saw the door at the end of the hall open and the souls of the people he had known, now losing their human form and becoming more interesting, like glowing beings, began to walk through it. He watched as Howard and Maria Stark walked through the doors, waving at him, followed by the Commandos who did the same. Single file, they walked through the door into a blinding light, becoming one with the light. To his surprise, he thought he heard the blast of a train whistle, similar to the ones who took soldiers away from home towns in World War II, the sound he had not heard in nearly a century. He tried to look through the door into the light to see if there really was a train, but it blinded him and he looked away. As Natasha stepped through the light, he wanted to reach out to her, telling her no, that she was still young and had a life to live. Instead, she turned back to him and smiled, and in his head, or soul, he heard the words "I love you old man, see you soon."

"Let her go," Peggy said gently. "Her life has been one of pain, and now she is finally at peace."

"Clint will be devastated," Steve said.

"He will," Peggy said, "but he will continue to live. His family lives, and he and Natasha are soulmates, and always have been. They will see each other again."

With that, Peggy turned and walked towards Daniel who was the last one through the door, waiting for her. He held out his hand and she took it, but then turn back to Steve and smiled one last time. "What is your choice?"

Steve knew the moment had come, the moment he must decide. A strong part of him wanted to go with Peggy through that light, to catch the train and moved towards eternity with her. He knew that he loved her and his soul recognized her as she said it would. But as he looked at her holding hands with Daniel, he also knew that this lifetime, he was never meant to be her husband. No matter what he had wanted in the early part of his life, he knew that it was not to be. He could return with her and become part of their soul group again, or he could return to the life of Steve Rogers, which would include Sharon. But he also knew that Peggy was right, the choice was not about which woman he wanted to spend his existence with. They were both part of that existence in different ways. The choice was about whether or not his life as Steve Rogers was done.

He closed his eyes, and in that moment he saw the life review that so many had spoken of who had experienced death but had returned. Like a fast-moving movie, he saw his own birth, his sickly childhood, experienced the love of his mother's arms around him, the uncertainty of the Great Depression, the horror of war, the glow of his friendship with Bucky, the camaraderie of the Commandos. He felt the ice again, and the sadness of his return to life in a time not his own. He felt his joy and frustration with the Avengers, and the sudden and unexpected but powerful love he felt for Sharon.

'It is finished,' a man had whispered as he hung on a cross so many centuries ago. 'It is finished,' so many had also whispered throughout the ages, as he realized Peggy had whispered at the moment of her own death. But had he said these words?

He had not.

And with sudden clarity, he realize that was because he was not finished. Although he may not continue as Captain America, he was not finished living his life. There was so much that Steve Rogers had not been able to do while wearing the mantle of Captain America. But now, it could be his choice. He could have those experiences. And with clarity, he also understood that Sharon would be part of it. That had always been the plan. The same as Peggy who was her aunt in this lifetime but had been many things to him in the past, she was his companion, his friend, and his soulmate. They all were.

He opened his eyes. Daniel was still standing in the doorway, but Peggy was still staring at him. "It is not finished," he said.

The smile she gave him was radiant. "I had hoped it wouldn't be. We've had quite an adventure so far, you and I, haven't we? It will be so much fun seeing where you go from here, and where I will go from here. And I will see you again."

"About Sharon? You're not upset?" he asked.

"Gracious no!" she said. "Why would I be? Our souls have never been in competition over another soul in our group. It's all about the journey. I love you both, and I always will. Hug her for me when you get back, and don't let her give you any crap. I would say try to keep her out of trouble, but I know from past experience that that's impossible. Instead, I will say only, good luck."

She blew him a kiss, and then turned and took Daniel's hand. With the final wave, she stepped through the light with him, and the door closed. Steve thought he heard a final whistle blow as the light from behind the door faded and the hall went silent and began to dim. Then, the door he had originally come through at the other end of the hall opened into the tunnel. He knew he was supposed to step through it. Slowly, he walked towards the open door, glancing once back at the door in which Peggy and all his friends had passed. He missed them, but was comforted by the knowledge he now had, that he was never truly parted from them. He turned back to the tunnel behind his door, and stepped through into it.

He suddenly felt as if a force connected to some sort of cord attached to his chest had forcefully yanked him forward, as if a racecar had suddenly taken off, dragging him behind it. If there had been air in the tunnel, no doubt he'd have been blinded by the force of speed of air rushing past him. He was moving impossibly fast, so fast he could barely comprehend it. Then he was falling, as if out of the sky, feeling gravity begin to exert its hold on him as he came back into the three dimensional world. He was suddenly aware that the force in his chest seemed to be some sort of glowing silver cord, pulling him through the sky. He recognized the landscape around the Avengers facility as the cord drew him in, through the roof and through several floors. He saw his lifeless body, lying on the table as he approached, and then he was forcefully slammed back into it. He felt like he had just hit concrete, and suddenly there was pain. The pain of stillness, of his lungs not working, then suddenly beginning to work again. After being to free and light, suddenly finding himself back in his mortal form felt a bit like putting on soggy, cold muddy overalls after a warm shower. It was jolting, and uncomfortable. He felt his heart start beating again, and his force of his injuries as the blood started to flow. His mouth opened and he gasped for air and groaned in pain, the lights suddenly too bright for his eyes that had also just come back online.

He forced his eyes open and willed the buzzing in his ears to stop. There were pounding sounds, feet hitting floor as F.R.I.D.A.Y. frantically alerted everyone to his movement. Suddenly Sharon was bursting into the room, skidding to a stop beside him, her face showing her disbelieving shock, and her mouth hanging open.

"St….Steve?" she whispered.

"Sharon…." He replied, and closed his eyes and smiled. He was weak, but his hand reached for hers. He felt her warm fingers close over his cold, but warming ones, and then suddenly she was all around him, her arms gathering him up and pulling him close in a fierce hug, and now crying openly. It was difficult, but he managed to get one of his own arms around her as the other Avengers and medical staff poured into the room. Their shocked but joyous voices said his name over and over, and he felt hands on his shoulders and head, as they tried to assure themselves that he was truly alive. The next few minutes were a blur as voices mingled, and the medical staff shooed everyone out of his room to attend to him. Thor had to all but carry Sharon out, protesting.

The medical staff had no answer for his miraculous resurrection. They could find nothing wrong with him that wouldn't heal in time. He faded in and out of consciousness as his body relearned how to live again. But when he finally opened his eyes, he looked out of the window at the morning sun filtering in through the drapes. He became aware of the warm form stretched out alongside him, and turned to find Sharon's sleeping form next to him, one arm draped over him. He felt a sudden sense of peace, knowing that all was as it should be. He would miss Peggy, the Commandos, and especially Nat in the years that would come, but he knew they weren't truly gone. He leaned his head against Sharon's, finally at peace, and knowing that she was near. This time around.


End file.
